Tsentralnyi Telegraf will launch a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) next summer, the company’s commercial director Kirill Karasev announced yesterday at an industry conference. Established in 1852 as Moscow’s very first telegraph station, today Tsentralnyi Telegraf is a provider of ISP, IPTV, VPN, and other telecommunication services in Moscow and its surroundings.
The new MVNO will operate under the same brand name, ‘Qwerty,’ as Tsentralnyi Telegraf’s ISP services. It will use the CDMA-450 network of Skylink, a major 3G operator that launched its own MVNOs one year ago. Tsentralnyi Telegraf and Skylink are both part of the Svyazinvest group.
Russia’s national telecom operator Rostelecom, which also has plans to launch an MVNO in Moscow, is currently in talks with each of the three main mobile operators – Megafon, MTS, and Vimpelcom. The development of MVNO projects is as an important part of Rostelecom’s strategy. Rostelecom has the ambition to integrate a variety of networks and services across Russia and assert itself as a universal operator.
According to the Russian consultancy J’Son & Partners Consulting, MVNOs served an approximately 1.1 million users across the country by the end of 2011, or less than 1% of the main operators’ customer base, a figure significantly lower than the average in Western countries.
Among the main Russian MVNOs are Prosto, launched by Megafon, and A-Mobile, a joint project of Auchan and MTS.
Sources: Digit.ru / RIA Novosti, RBC Daily
